Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/165

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FOSSIL MAN (BRITAIN AND BELGIUM)
111

have been entirely removed, and the face of the pit, at the time of Mr Newton's description, is stated to have been 10 feet removed from the exact spot in which the bones were embedded (Fig. 22); so that there is no possibility of verifying the above statements by any further inspection of the locality. It may, however, be of some interest to note that they stood some

Figure(s): 22

Fig. 22. View of Chalk and Gravel Pit at Galley Hill.(From photo by Mr Clement Reid and Mr J. W. Reid.)

a chalk; b gravel; c wall, behind which is the highroad.
The figure on the right is represented as standing on the spot where the human remains were found.

90 feet above the Thames, and that the contiguous gravels have frequently yielded specimens of flint implements of the usual Palæolithic types (Fig. 23).

The above evidence, the bona fides of which cannot be questioned, goes strongly to support the view that this skeleton was contemporary with the deposition of the gravel ; in which case there can be no doubt that we have in it the remains of a genuine specimen of the Palæolithic men who inhabited the south of England, and manufactured flint implements and weapons when these old rivers stood at their high-level marks. On the other hand, the theory that it was a subsequent interment has, in the hands of an objector, a certain locus standi which cannot be contradicted by any direct evidence, since the column of earth above the skeleton had been removed before either of the above-named witnesses came upon the scene. The following remarks by Sir John Evans, made in